Installing GRUB

hirohitosan · 06-08-2009, 06:22 AM

Hi there.

I have on my old computer Win98SE, Mandrake9.2 and FreeBSD7.2.
I installed Grub on Linux partition.
My partition table looks like this:

Code:

/dev/hda1/ ---- Win98SE
/dev/hda2/ ---- LinuxSWAP
/dev/hda3/ ---- Linux
/dev/hda4/ ---- FreeBSD

GRUB is installed on /dev/hda3/
/boot/grub/menu.lst looks like:

Code:

timeout 100
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
i18n (hd0,2)/boot/grub/messages
keytable (hd0,2)/boot/us.klt
altconfigfile (hd0,2)/boot/grub/menu.once
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda2
initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

After booting the grub promt appear and the system doesn't boot.
If i try

Code:

grub> root (hd0,2)
    Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> kernel /boot/vmlinuz
Error 18: Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS

I don't know what to do next.
Can someone guide me how to boot my computer?

thanks a lot!

linuxlover.chaitanya · 06-08-2009, 06:33 AM

Why dont you try and install grub on the mbr of the drive and then see what happens?

pixellany · 06-08-2009, 07:22 AM

Where was GRUB before you installed in on the partition?

OR--how did you boot up before you put GRUB on the partition?

Keep in mind that there always must be boot code in the MBR---if you have GRUB in a partition, then something needs to point to it.

hirohitosan · 06-08-2009, 07:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxlover.chaitanya

Why dont you try and install grub on the mbr of the drive and then see what happens?

How? Since I cannot boot in any OS?

linuxlover.chaitanya · 06-08-2009, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hirohitosan

How? Since I cannot boot in any OS?

Thats the beauty of Linux. Just boot distribution cd that you have either in Live mode or in rescue mode and install it.
If in live mode
sudo grub-install /dev/hda

Or if in rescue mode

grub-install /dev/hda.

And you have got enough explanation why you can not boot, from pixellany.

malekmustaq · 06-08-2009, 07:56 AM

hirohitosan:

I have not yet tried Mandrake, but to be sure there are two ways (or many ways) of solving your problem.

1.) Edit your erroneous /boot/grub/menu.lst --DO THIS:

herohito@host-$: sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst (you can use other editors, vi, vim, etc.) <enter password if required>

(Once the editor opens menu.lst put this entry into one stanza--)

title linux
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 acpi=ht quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img
boot

Save the menu.lst and quit the editor.
Reboot your machine, see if this works.

Another way is--

2) Boot your Linux installer, once booted mount your Linux partition then go to grub prompt:

installer@host-$: sudo grub

grub> root (hd0,2)
grub> grub-install /dev/hda
grub> quit

Reboot.

In the No.2 solution you have written stage 1 to MBR, so your win98 will not be chainloaded at grub until you have editted again your /boot/grub/menu.lst.

You can edit the menu.lst at your linux by doing this--

herohito@host-$: sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst (you can use other editors, vi, vim, etc)

Put this stanza into the menu.lst--

title windows
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

You will have multiboot running in grub.

There are other ways of solving or playing with grub to meet your needs. Let me advise your good self to read this tutorial http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub.html

Hope this helps.

Good luck.

syg00 · 06-08-2009, 08:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hirohitosan

After booting the grub promt appear and the system doesn't boot.

That would seem to imply that grub is indeed already in the MBR. Perhaps we could offer some assistance to the OP huh folks ?.

Quote:

Error 18: Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS

This is a BIOS limitation, not a grub one - simply re-installing grub won't fix it.
If you have a (Linux) liveCD let's see the output from "fdisk -l" (from a terminal session). You may be able to get away with a re-install, putting the root at /dev/hda2 rather than the swap. This assumes all the files in /boot fit within the first 1024 cylinders (say 8 Gig). Better would be to allocate a /boot partition and ensure it is within those limits.

If you can get a BIOS update that will probably make this problem go away without anything else needing to be done.

pixellany · 06-08-2009, 08:32 AM

We might be giving better help if OP would answer my earlier questions.........

hirohitosan · 06-08-2009, 09:50 AM

Thanks guys. Grub was installed during Mandrake installation. At that time I didn't create rescue disk. I just have a live CD Slax6.
Here is my fdisk -l output

Code:

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1         638     5124703+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/hda2            4826        4864      313267+  82  Linux swap
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hda3             639        1276     5124735   83  Linux
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hda4   *        1277        4825    28507122   a5  FreeBSD
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order

and here is my /boot/grub/menu.lst after modyfing

Code:

timeout 100
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
i18n (hd0,2)/boot/grub/messages
keytable (hd0,2)/boot/us.klt
altconfigfile (hd0,2)/boot/grub/menu.once
default 0

title linux
root(hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 acpi=ht quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img
boot

title windows
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

hirohitosan · 06-08-2009, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

This is a BIOS limitation, not a grub one - simply re-installing grub won't fix it.

You may be able to get away with a re-install, putting the root at /dev/hda2 rather than the swap. This assumes all the files in /boot fit within the first 1024 cylinders (say 8 Gig). Better would be to allocate a /boot partition and ensure it is within those limits.

so you suggest to re-partition again the whole HDD?

hirohitosan · 06-08-2009, 04:47 PM

Thanks guys!
Finally I installed LILO and it works just fine
here's my lilo.conf

Code:

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
vga=normal
default="linux"
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=1000
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
        label="linux"
        root=/dev/hda3
        initrd=/boot/initrd.img
        append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda2"
        read-only
other=/dev/hda1
        label="windows"
        table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/hda4
        label="FreeBSD"
        table=/dev/hda

and it boots all OS

thanks again